Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to measuring cardiac motion, and more particularly to measuring cardiac motion using a cardiovascular navigation system.
Cardiovascular navigation systems (CNS) provide real-time position and orientation information in relation to a part of the cardiovascular system, such as, the heart based on sensors placed at various locations within the cardiovascular system. The CNS may be integrated with a fluoroscopic (or other diagnostic) imaging system and track the sensors continuously within an imaging volume defined by the fluoroscopic system, on both live and recorded background diagnostic images.
Recently, it has been proposed to utilize the CNS to evaluate the motion of the heart and identify a desired (e.g., optimal) location for placement of a left ventricular (LV) lead in a cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) system. For example, the CNS may systematically record information, such as displacement of the sensors, associated with various endocardial and/or epicardial locations of the LV. Epicardial locations may include mapping within the coronary sinus branches as well as mapping directly on the epicardial surface of the LV via a sub-xiphoid puncture technique, for example.
However, the position and orientation data acquired by the cardiovascular navigation system is affected by the movement of the patient, translation of the patient table, measurement errors of the system, and the orientation and location of the CNS transmitters that may be integrated with the imaging system such as the fluoroscopic system. A need remains for methods and systems that can obtain motion data from a navigation system to assess cardiac motion.